A review by neilrcoulter
Doctor Who and the Daleks by David Whitaker

3.0

I've loved Doctor Who since watching it late on Friday nights on PBS--well before the recent reboot. Now I get to pass that love on to my kids, who have become more obsessed with it than I ever was. I recently bought several of the novelization reissues for the kids--especially for my 4th grader who is just at the point at which he'll may become a lifelong avid reader. Now that the kids have read most of the books, I get a chance to have a look at them too.

As extra features on a number of Doctor Who DVDs will tell you, the novelizations were very important to kids who grew up with the Doctor in the 1960s and 70s who had no other way to revisit past stories. Now with the DVDs, the value of the books is more to see the ways in which the books offer slightly different versions of the stories. In [b:Doctor Who And The Daleks|1417018|Doctor Who And The Daleks|David Whitaker|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1376349833s/1417018.jpg|1407387]--the first book, based on the second story--the major difference is that [a:David Whitaker|127933|David Whitaker|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1250787582p2/127933.jpg] decided to make this the first story, bringing Ian and Barbara to the TARDIS in a different way than in the original Unearthly Child story. The other difference is that the book is told from the point of view of Ian, which gives a different perspective than the TV story.

I look forward to reading more of the novelizations. They are good fun for fans of the series, and a good way of building kids' interest in reading.